Response from the City
I received a reply today from Bronwyn Bradbury (below) and earlier from Jill Zachary.
Fyi: I take all communication with the City with a grain of salt:
Hello Victoria,
Thank you for your email. I understand that Jill Zachary provided answers to most of your questions via email on August 13, including your question about Ortega Park.
As for your question about how to participate in the Parks and Recreation Master Plan process, members of the public are welcome to attend one of our community workshops and/or complete our open participation survey. The survey will be available to all members of the public, regardless of whether they attend a workshop. We currently anticipate launching the survey and hosting seven community workshops in October.
To receive project updates, including notification when the survey is available and when community workshop dates, times, and locations are announced, you may sign up for our mailing list through the Master Plan website at www.SantaBarbaraCA.gov/PRMP If you prefer, I would be happy to add you to the mailing list upon request.
Best,
Bronwyn
Bronwyn Bradbury
CITY OF SANTA BARBARA, Parks & Recreation
(805) 897-2608 | bbradbury@SantaBarbaraCA.gov
Correspondence with JZ:
Hi Victoria,
Thanks for your email. Please see the answers to your questions below.
Could you please clarify whether the 30-year Master Plan will have any impact on the existing plans for the Ortega Park pool?
The master planning process will not have any impact on the plans for the Ortega Park Pool. We are currently in the process of securing the building permits. The project is not yet funded but will be shovel ready.
Could you please let us know:
Have Parks & Recreation staff conducted any meetings with stakeholders regarding the Master Plan?
Our outreach efforts began in April (with Earth Day) and have been initially focused on pop-ups in City parks and at special events. The purpose of the pop-ups is to begin to get the word out about the project.
What stakeholders have been contacted or invited to participate? Stakeholder and community engagement will begin in October. It will include 7 workshops at various locations around the city. Once we have a schedule of the meetings, it will be posted in all our facilities and distributed to our contact lists of stakeholders, facility users, including anyone that receives communications from the department (including Aquatics), via social media, etc.
How is community outreach currently taking place? In addition to the pop-ups and the community workshops, we will be conducting community surveys. One open survey for anyone to complete as well as a separate statistically valid survey.
Are there upcoming meetings, workshops, surveys, or other opportunities for members of the community to provide input?
See my second and third bullets, we are still working on the dates and locations. The open community survey will be available for anyone.
Where can we find information about the Master Plan and the community outreach process?
Our webpage is still getting built out and will have workshop meeting dates once we have them in place. In the meantime, here is the link: https://sbparksandrec.santabarbaraca.gov/projects/parks-and-recreation-master-plan You can sign up for notifications there.
I am attaching a presentation we made to the City Council on April 7 that outlines the public participation process. Please note that the schedule has changed slightly since that presentation with the community outreach happening later. We want to be sure to host meetings well after the summer season, school start-up and the Labor Day holiday with the hope that more community members can attend.
The work to draft the plan will not begin until early 2027 once the community engagement portion of the project is complete. The draft plan will also have an outreach component.
I hope this information is helpful
Jill